


Basic Training (in how not to be a jerk)

by truthtakestime



Category: Captain Marvel (2019), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Air Force, Alternate Timeline, Backstory, Banter, Basic Training, Gen, Headcanon, Reluctant Friendship, this stuff would never fly in the air force, unlikely friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-05-12 17:48:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19234084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/truthtakestime/pseuds/truthtakestime
Summary: Before he had been Colonel James Rhodes, aka “War Machine,” Rhodey had gone straight from MIT to basic training with a woman called Carol Danvers.“You shouldn’t be here,” he’d told her flat-out within the first two weeks. He’d seen her fall off the ropes course that morning. “War ain’t a place for little girls.”“Then they shouldn’t have let you in,” she’d responded and decked him. That led to one of the most spectacular (if brief) brawls that James had ever been a part of.





	Basic Training (in how not to be a jerk)

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this the week I saw Captain Marvel, and significantly before Endgame. At the time it was kinda speculative? But Rhodey not knowing her when she shows up in Endgame has made it officially AU. But it was not so far-fetched an idea -- based on their assumed ages -- that they might have trained together at some point or at least been vaguely acquainted. It's a small world. 
> 
> Many thanks to Jess (who first brought up the idea that they might have met/that Lawson got the Tesseract from Howard Stark, and also read this through for me) and Vickie (who read through in spite of not having seen the film). Y'all are angels.

Before he had been Colonel James Rhodes, aka “War Machine,” Rhodey had gone straight from MIT to basic training with a woman called Carol Danvers. 

He had been less open-minded then, a kid himself with something to prove and feeling unreasonably threatened by this _girl_ coming in trying to do the same. Girls were great and all -- his mama had trained him right, of course -- but not _here_. Not in the military. This was no place for a woman.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he’d told her flat-out within the first two weeks. He’d seen her fall off the ropes course that morning. “War ain’t a place for little girls.” 

“Then they shouldn’t have let you in,” she’d responded and decked him. That led to one of the most spectacular (if brief) brawls that James had ever been a part of.

Punishment had been swift for the both of them, an ungodly amount of push-ups and a full week of a “special” cleaning detail, which basically translated into them scrubbing down the interiors of every liveable structure on the base in addition to all of their normal duties. As an added bonus, they were required to work together. 

“This is your fault, you know,” Danvers grumbled at him when the supervising officer had stepped outside for a minute. “Didn’t anyone ever warn you that your mouth would get you in trouble?” 

James didn’t think that her assessment of the situation was a valid one. “Funny, cos I’m pretty sure it was _you_ who threw the first punch.” Which had actually been better than some guys he’d fought, not that he was about to mention it. 

Carol smirked at him and continued scrubbing. 

By the time they’d been there a month, three of the six women who had started with their flight had dropped out of training. Carol Danvers was not one of them. James admired that. Grudgingly, but he did. He admired her friend, Maria, too; she was a young single mother raising her kid _and_ pushing through Basic, and she was black. That was a lot stacked against her before she’d ever made the questionable decision to befriend Danvers. 

James was learning not to underestimate either of them. 

“Why do you stick up for her?” he asked Maria one day. “That woman is an actual curse; she’s dangerous to anyone who wants a chance at a career. Is she like… your pet project or something?” 

“Yeah, because raising my own child ain’t enough.” Maria rolled her eyes. “I picked up a stray just for laughs.” 

“Hey, it’s your career.” 

Very soon after that, James found himself jeopardizing his own career right along with them. 

“You’re going to do _what_ to TI Lovelace?” 

“He’s a bigot and a chauvinist,” Danvers spat. “And he’s put in a request to recycle me _again_.” 

“I mean... he is our Training Instructor,” James pointed out, though he privately agreed. Lovelace was an idiot, and he was the kind of guy who never got his hands dirty with anything. He’d pulled the same stunt with James three times before grudgingly conceding that he was keeping up with the rest of the flight. 

“You know that Carol is doing just as well as any _guy_ on this base,” Maria added, shaking her head. “She’s maxing out all of the physical requirements at the male levels, and he wants to recycle her? Don’t tell me you think that’s fair.” 

“Of course it’s not fair, but we didn’t join up because the world is _fair_. The two of you are going to get yourselves _court-martialed_.” 

“Not if we don’t get caught,” Danvers pointed out, giving him a significant look. “We could use another pair of eyes.” 

“I should report you,” James grumbled. But he found himself playing lookout in spite of his misgivings. 

He had to admit, it was pretty satisfying to witness Lovelace’s outrage when he found that his barracks had been graffitied with hearts and rainbows. And since nobody on base liked him very much anyway, if anyone knew who the offender was, they weren’t about to tell. 

Maybe Danvers and Rambeau weren’t so bad, after all. 

\-- 

There was definite flack given to James when he was partnered up with Danvers for drills. He was actually pretty sure it was some sort of twisted punishment for not being worse at training, for excelling where his training instructor had hoped he would fail. Lovelace had always disliked him, and as far as James was concerned, the feeling was mutual. And this assignment felt like the TI was trying to set him up for failure.

Because he still cared very much about his career, he put up the token protest and made it look good; it wouldn’t do him any favors to admit that he was _comfortable_ with the idea of working with Danvers. She was a firecracker, and she was trouble, but he had never met a more reliable woman who wasn’t his mama. And she worked her ass off to be here. There wasn’t anyone on base that could have been a better partner. 

She shaded her eyes with her hand as he approached her from across the field. “I hear you don’t wanna work with a woman,” she said once he was in earshot. “Afraid I’ll show you up?” 

“More like slow me down,” he said, hiding his grin. “You remember that special cleaning detail? It took us forever thanks to you. I don’t plan to be out here for the rest of the week waiting for you to catch up.” 

Carol’s expression was neutral, but her eyes glittered with something like excitement. “Then we’d better make sure we’re not.” 

Were they the first team on the field to finish? Yes, they were. Did Lovelace have to stand there in front of everyone and hold him up as an example? Yes, he did. 

Was it the best day of James’s life? Maybe not the best day _ever_ , but by far the best day of basic training in the history of the military. 

\--

James’s mama and his little sister flew in for graduation week. They wouldn’t tell him exactly where they had gotten the money for that, but he suspected that his MIT roommate Tony was footing the bill. Rambeau’s parents and her baby girl came too, all teary-eyed with pride over their daughter. 

Nobody arrived to shower Danvers with praise. When they asked if her family had been delayed, a terse “it’s complicated” was all anyone could get out of her.

Fortunately, as long as they stayed away from the subject of her relatives, Carol seemed more than happy to spend time with James’s and Maria’s families. And none of them minded including her. Actually, James was pretty sure that his sister was already in intense hero-worship mode with both her and Rambeau. She listened to them talk like it was the most interesting thing in the world, and every time he tried to get a word in she shushed him. 

“You said _what_ to her?” she demanded after Danvers had recounted the story of their first meeting. “Jamie, that’s so mean!”

The girls snickered over the nickname. James was pretty mortified all around. 

“Why would you tell her that, Danvers?”

“She asked for the story! Did you want me to lie to the kid?” 

“Yes!” 

\--

After the graduation ceremony, James received a phone call that he was pulled out of the festivities to take. Since his family was right here with him, he wasn’t sure what the urgency of the situation was. It made more sense when he heard the voice on the line. 

“Rhodey, my man! I hear congratulations are in order.” 

_I might have known_. “Tony. Thanks. What lies did you tell the nice people on the phone to get me here?” 

“Oh, just that I was a dying relative wanting to talk to you one final time, nothing too huge. Hey listen, sorry I couldn’t be there to see your whole shindig. I was totally planning on it. But my dad had other ideas, and… well, you know my dad.” 

“Yeah, you’ve said.” Tony’s dad was something, alright. James tried not to get involved in the complicated family issues of other people. “It’s okay. I appreciate the thought.”

“I mean I did a little bit more than think about it. Did you like my graduation present?” 

“I assume you mean my family?” 

“I figured someone might as well be there to see you looking ridiculous in that dress uniform. I couldn’t let a perfectly good opportunity go to waste.” 

It was always like that with Tony. During their time at MIT, James had learned not to take it personally. “Now I’m glad you didn’t come; I would never hear the end of it.” He paused thoughtfully. “It’s a shame though; there’s some real pretty girls in my flight who I would have loved to introduce you to.” 

“Oh?” Tony’s voice was bright and interested. “Are they my type? Do they like attractive successful and fabulously rich geniuses?” 

“No, I really just want to see which one would punch your lights out first. I’m pretty sure they’d hate you.” 

“Hate me, huh? We can work with that. Send me like… pictures or something, or their phone numbers if you can get them.”

James rolled his eyes. “Their numbers will be whatever base they’re assigned to,” he explained. “And that aside, they’ll kill you, Tony. See, against my better judgment, I kinda like having you as a friend. As much fun as it would be to watch, I don’t think I want the two of them to murder my best friend.”

“Fair enough, you’d be surprised how often I hear that. I guess I’ll just have to figure out how to meet them some other way.” 

James hoped he was kidding. And as much as he enjoyed talking with Tony, that was a thing that they could do at some point when his family _wasn’t_ present; he did have priorities, after all. “I’m hanging up now.”

“Okay, I get it, you’re embarrassed that you went off to the Air Force and only made friends with girls who don’t like you back. It’s fine, it happens to the best of us. But that doesn’t mean you should be denying me _my_ chance with those women!” 

He sighed. “Goodbye Tony.” 

\-- 

There was a part of James that had been quietly hoping his whole flight would receive the same base assignments, even though he knew better. But it was hard not to form attachments during training; you went through hell together, and you _needed_ to work together if you wanted to come out the other side. Your flight became family. But he knew that it was just a pipe dream, and that assignments weren’t made because you got warm fuzzies about teamwork. Those were thoughts best kept to yourself unless you wanted to be laughed out of the military. 

Everyone knew the facts of it. That didn’t mean that their whole flight wasn’t pretty melancholy their last night on base together. 

“Well, ladies, it’s been fun,” Danvers said to no one in particular, raising her glass. 

A few of the guys groaned and protested at the term “ladies,” but by now most of them didn’t even blink at her. They still didn’t necessarily approve of her, but at least to the guys she’d trained with she had proved her worth. The arguing was more habit than anything else. 

James smirked at her. “What are you talking about, fun? It’s been pure torture.” 

“Oh yes, sorry, I always get those two mixed up.” 

He was actually really going to miss this. “Listen, you’d better keep in touch. I wanna make sure that you don’t go off and get yourself killed or court-martialed without anyone around to look after you.” 

“What are you talking about? I’ll have Maria to look after me.” 

“Oh, then I’m definitely worried about you.” 

Rambeau slapped him in the chest, and Danvers laughed. “Your life will be empty and meaningless without us,” she informed him. “You just can’t say that in front of all your guy friends. It’s okay, we get it. Your secret is safe with us!” She raised her voice on that last bit, inviting a chorus of chuckling from around the room. 

Both because it had marked his entire basic training experience and also because he had spent several years being the butt of Tony Stark’s jokes, James was able to laugh along with the rest of them and not be too bothered by it. “Whatever helps you sleep at night, Danvers,” he said mildly.

Conversation moved on to other things, and lasted until everyone realized the time and rushed to their barracks to make curfew. In the morning, everyone was piled into the different buses that would take them to their new assignments, and with barely enough time to say goodbye they had all shipped out. 

It wasn’t until almost a week later that James found the note tucked away in his pack. 

_Rhodes,  
Of all the chauvinistic jerks I trained with, I hated you the least. Your sister is pretty cool, though.  
Thanks. For, you know, everything.  
Keep in touch!  
\- Danvers_

On the other side of the page was scrawled the name of the base that Carol had been assigned to, and the name of the woman she would be working under. _Dr. Wendy Lawson_. A scientist, not precisely someone military, which seemed a little backwards to him. But then, he knew that more than anything his friend had wanted to fly, and there was no way that any military man was going to let her do that. Maybe this scientist lady was more likely to give her a shot. 

He hoped so. Danvers was a great pilot, and it would be a shame to waste her talents. He wanted to see her change the world.

**Author's Note:**

> "Lovelace" was the name of my grandfather's training officer in the Marines, and apparently everyone hated him and said that he "matched his name". He and an old buddy sat and told me stories for an afternoon once and it was the best thing. I couldn't resist a little nod to the two of them.


End file.
